In this episode of The Marketer’s Journey, I interview Venkat Nagaswamy, EVP and CMO at telecommunications company Mitel. As someone who's held roles as a CEO, an analyst, a sales executive, and currently as a CMO throughout his 30-year career, Venkat has plenty of perspective, experience and wisdom to impart.  Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer’s Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts! Key takeaways from this episode: Focus your efforts. According to Venkat’s philosophy, one of the greatest risks most companies face is trying to compete with too many different players at once. In his role at Mitel, Venkat has made it his mission to focus their marketing efforts in just one market (in their case, the U.S.) in order to optimize outcomes and avoid spreading themselves too thin.Tell customer stories. Another big focus of Venkat’s when it comes to his role as CMO includes identifying and sharing Mitel’s most inspiring customer stories. By weaving great storytelling into the majority of their marketing plans, the team is better positioned to connect with new prospects and communicate the value of their products succinctly.Market the way you’d like to be marketed to. Venkat mentioned that part of his mission as CMO is to do away with negative stigmas surrounding marketing, and instead create the kind of marketing campaigns that truly add value to audiences. By making use of the abundance of data we have at our fingertips today, Venkat believes we can become more targeted in our efforts and therefore, reach people in a way that resonates. Learn more about Mitel here: https://www.mitel.com/en-ca  Learn more about Venkat here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/venkatnagaswamy/